This week's review of NASA's new plans for space exploration have been mixed, some very good and some very grim. The new plan calls for a cancellation of the back-to-the-moon Constellation project, extension of the International Space Station and development of technologies, step-by-step, to go further from the Earth orbit.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, during Wednesday's Senate sub-committee hearing, had stressed that Mars should now be the prime destination for human space flight, but while also acknowledging that "we can't get there right now because we don't have the technology to do it".

Lawmakers have responded bitterly by pointing out that without a clear and specific timetable and destination, NASA might end up going nowhere at all.

NASA, however, does have some supporters, as has been revealed in an op-ed write up by Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, in which he supported that agency's new plans.

"The new NASA budget makes sense for many important reasons. First, the president is signaling that this agency deserves the full support of this administration and Congress, even as priorities are sorted out and other budgets are cut. Second, getting long-range spaceflight right requires getting near-Earth orbit perfect. Third, forestalling the moon mission in favor of perfecting the technologies that will allow us to reach Mars within some defined period ahead is sound. We should not rush it and experience an avoidable tragedy", he said.